It should be a solo.

Jan 11, 2010 -- 2:27AM, Qube wrote:

Jan 11, 2010 -- 1:32AM, DarkSpartan wrote:

I had a Level 40 version of the same running around in my little brain. Level 30, though, you're making it possibel to kill it. 

That's okay. I have another something that'll almost do as well.

-Sarena

ooh, I forgot its vunlerability ...

edit: oh, btw sure its killeble, but not by lvl 1 bards ...

What about a lvl 1 bard hiding behind 50 dead bards stacked in a pile?

"They may take our lives, but they'll never take our character sheets!!!"

I added a skill challenge for the Holy handgrenade

Skill Challenge: throwing the handgranade (2 successes required before 3 failures)

• Intelligence check DC 2 (1 success; maximum 1 succes): "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceedest on to three. Five is right out."
• Athletics check DC 42 (1 success; requires successfull intelligence check; requires holy handgrenade; failure makes the skill challenge fail) "Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in my sight, shall snuff it."

• Succes: target gets hit by the holy handgrenade. this deals 1d4 + strength damage 
• Failure: the handgrenade misses or worse, explodes in your hand. either way each member of the party loses a healing surge.

Wait, how many failures? 

But you're leaving out the most important part! "Oh lord, please bless this thy holy hand grenade, with which we may blow thine enemies into tiny bits, in thy mercy."

And wouldn't it be a Religion check to know all that mumbo-jumbo? Oh, and its pull the pin and throw the grenade, not pull the grenade and throw the pin.

Smoker - The Tiny Titan

Perhaps the most curious thing you've seen on your long travels, a large group of Salamander congregate around a high stone table, atop which a prattling heap of ash and smoke dances about wildly.  Shrill voice breaking the air and flapping arms sending blooms of ash all around, you're looking at Ashtongue - the tiny titan; more commonly known as Smoker.

Smoker somewhat resembles a tiny, ash grey imp, angular features and thin spindly arms tipped in long taloned fingers, but to dismiss him as such is a fatal mistake.  This formidable foe has thrived in the harsh wilds of this chaotic plane, amassed wealth to challenge even the mightest titan kings, and routinely deals with the seedy and conniving world of the Efreeti.  While defensive about his stature (Smoker rapidly angers if he perceives he is not being taken completely seriously) he walks with the confidence of a very successful hunter in the wildest of planes.

The area around Smoker is very hot and it smells of brimstone, probably from the brimstone elementals he is able to summon or create at will.  Smoker is constantly puffing off a cloud of ash and smoke, which rises up to hang in the air about his shoulders for but a moment before crashing down to the ground around him - completely concealing his core body.  His hair and chin beard wave about, appearing to be no more than thick tendrils of smoke that wisp off into the air at their tips.  The area around him is constantly dancing with the smoke and dust from his body dancing about in the heated air around him, standing near to him is as standing near to a raging bonfire and the air writhes in currents that make it seem as if the smoke is absently gesturing to Smokers moods.  When he is mad or excited the ash that puffs up from his body billows around him, glowing red from within and arcing with the crack of static discharging amidst the cloud, highlighting his emotions.

He surrounds himself with loyal Salamanders sworn into his service, a dozen bodyguards and often a vizier or two that update him on their endeavors.  While Smoker is a savvy merchent and runs a large operation, he does not handle the operations of his artifact collection, slave taking or the network of spies and merchants personally.  A very hands off leader, he assigns someone to manage these things and has them regularly report on their success.  He challanges them to ever greater preformance from these viziers and regularly disposes of the ones who have not met his lofty goals, assigning an underling to oversee the newly vacant position.

Smokers proper body is completely hidden from view by the ash and smoke that constantly eminates from his burning heart.  If one could see behind the veil, they would see a stubby legged and fat looking impish creature with a belly lit up with the red burning embers inside.  This hot belly blasts out ash and smoke from the rocklike skin surrounding it, Smokers body is actually the source of the ash cloud and smoke trails that follow him and give him his name.  His body is replenished as fast as it is consumed, no matter how furious he might get and how incredible the ash and smoke billowing up from his tiny form underneath it all, the same creature remains.  His brothers, the full sized titens appear as muscled creatures petrified under inches of solid ash, as they move their skin cracks and crumbles consantly - creating clouds of dust about their feet - the fury within burns through their open mouths and nostrils, beards of smoke curl down from their stern visage.  Truely these are terrifying creatures, and why Smoker is so different in both stature and depiction from these hulks is a mystery to all - a mystery he himself has yerned to know for many years.

Adventure Ideas:

• Smoker is a collector, he could very well have an artifact, ritual or item that the players require.  More interestingly, he may instead own a slave that has information the PCs require - they could be forced to purchase or liberate that slave and meet his demands before they get what they need.  Smoker is not a fool, however, and could easily deduce that the slave is of far greater value that he anticipated if the PCs are not careful in their dealings for him.
• The Salamanders are slave takers, they run a vast operation that simply cannot be supplied from sources in the Elemental Chaos alone.  They often make their way through rifts that Smoker seems able to accurately predict that open to the surface worlds in the Feywild, Shadowfall or Primal planes.  There they lead excursions, pillaging nearby communities and bringing their prisoners back to the Chaos before those rifts close up again.  Should the PCs hear reports of sudden volcanic activity followed by Salamander sightings and attacks on villages, they may be in a position to follow these groups back through the rifts in an attempt to recover the captured prisoners.
• There is rare occasion for Smoker to reach out to the PCs himself and request an audience.  It may be that he holds an item that he knows the players seek, which he promises in return for the goods a daring thief has liberated from one of his hidden caches.

Smoker (Ashtongue, The Tiny Titan) 17 Elite Artillery Tiny Elemental Humanoid (fire, earth) 3,200xp Initiative +15 Senses: Perception +13; Tremorsense Heart of Fire Aura 1; enemies starting their turn in this aura take 10 fire damage. HP 264; Bloodied 132 AC 32; Fortitude 26, Reflex 32, Will 28 Saving Throws +2 Resist: 20 Fire Speed 8, Burrow 8 Action Points 1 Flaming claws (standard; at-will) Fire Sharp talons on his hands start digging into you, hot ash crusts in the wounds and continues burning. Reach 0; +23 vs AC; 2d8 + 7 and 10 ongoing fire damage. Ember Fragment (standard; at-will) Fire A fragment flies out with a crack and soars straight into the target. Range 15; Range 15; +21 vs Reflex; 3d8 + 7  and target weakened (save ends). Pyroclast Surge (standard; encounter) Fire An ashen cloud rises up from Smokers body, pluming above him but hanging in the air.  It suddenly rushes down, blasting out in all directions and washing over his foes. Close Burst 1; +21 vs Fortitude; 4d10 + 7 and target dazed.  Smoker may teleport up to four squares as part of this attack. First failed save: Target stunned (save ends both). Second Failed Save: Target petrified. Call to Arms (minor; recharge ) Summoning A billowing column of smoke bursts from Smoker which takes life and assaults his enemies. Close Burst 1; Smoker summons one Minor Brimstone Elemental into any square in the burst.  The creature may be summoned into the air above Smoker, and as it is insubstantial its space may overlap with Smokers own. Eruption (standard; at-will) Smoker burrows down into the ground and bursts up some squares away in a shower of earth. Close Burst 1; +23 vs AC; Smoker must burrow at least 3 squares as part of this attack and cannot move further than his burrow speed.  This attack places him at the surface; 1d10 + 7 and targets knocked prone. Dying Flames (free; when first bloodied; encounter) Smoker regains use of his Pyroclast Surge power and summons two Salamander Bodyguards into adjacent squares. Alignment: Unaligned Languages: Giant, Primordial Skills: Arcana +17, Bluff +15, Diplomacy +15, Insight +18 Str 15 (+10) Dex 24 (+15) Wis 21 (+13) Con 24 (+15) Int 18 (+12) Cha 15 (+10)

Lore: Arcana 25: Ash Titans are the physical expression of natural forces that birth them, the rock stars of titankind they live fast and often burn out not long after their tumultuous birthing.  Unlike most other titans that carve out fiefdoms in the chaos and rule over giants and other subjects, Ash Titans roam the lands and terrorize all they come across.  They press weaker races into service and lead war like bands that sweep through the planes seeking to lay flat everything they find. Arcana 30: An Ash Titan is among the largest and least intelligent of titans.  They are birthed in eruptions of fire and ash as full grown terrors and they immediately begin their swatch of destruction.  They fight with their bare fists and unbridled rage, trampling their opponents into ash beneath their feet.  They seek only destruction in their rampage, but will allow those few barbaric races who bow in homage and take up arms in the name of wanton destruction to join them as an armed force.  Few Ash Titans happen to gather a sizable force before they are inevitably put down, but those that do are the few that make it into the pages of history. Streetwise 20: Smoker is most atypical to his barbaric kin.  Something else fuels his desires, a wisdom that tempers his fury and shapes it into a far reaching cause.  Thou few have ever met him, most only ever dealing with his detestable Salamander host, rumor has it that this titan is not the brute that his kin are famed for. Streetwise 30: Smoker is a famous slaver on the planes of the Elemental Chaos, many Efreeti groups trade with him regularly, and he bargains with archon bands for service as artifact collectors as well.  It is said that he has a sizable horde of rarities hidden somewhere on the plane, and thou he loathes to let them go he is willing to negotiate if the price is right.

Salamander Bodyguard 12 Minion Brute Large elemental humanoid (Fire, Reptile) 175xp

Initiative +8 Senses: Perception +13;

HP HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion.

AC 24; Fortitude 25, Reflex 21, Will 21

Resist 20 Fire

Speed 6

Fiery Pike (standard; at-will) Fire, Weapon

Reach 2; +15 vs AC; 7 damage and target pushed 1 square.

Tail Lash (standard; at-will) Fire

Reach 2; +14 vs AC; 5 fire damage, and the target slides 1 square

Alignment: Evil Languages: Primordial

Skills: Intimidate +11, Athletics +17, Endurance +16

Str 22 (+12) Dex 15 (+8) Wis 14 (+8) Con 20 (+11) Int 8 (+5) Cha 10 (+6) Equipment Longspear

Minor Brimstone Elemental Strangler 16 Minion Controller Large elemental magical beast (air, earth) 350xp

Initiative +12 Senses: Perception +12; Blindsight

Choking Smoke Aura 2; any creature that enters or starts its turn in the aura gains concealment, in addition the Minor Brimstone Elemental Strangler makes a Suffocate attack as a free action against any enemy that starts its turn in the aura.

HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion.

AC 33; Fortitude 26, Reflex 25, Will 25

Immune disease; poison;

Resist 10 fire

Speed Fly 6 (hover)

Suffocate (standard; at-will)

SThe Brimstone Elemental reaches out with insubstantial limbs of concentrated smoke that force their way into the lungs of its target. Reach 2; +20 vs Fortitude; 5 damage.  Creatures that do not need to breath (constructs, undead, etc) are not affected by this attack.

Assaulting Presence (standard; at-will)

The Minor Brimstone Elemental Strangler shifts up to 4 squares and makes a Suffocate attack against one or two targets as part of the movement.

Smoke Blast (standard; encounter) Zone

Close Burst 3; When Minor Brimstone Elemental Strangler is reduced to 0 hit points; +20 vs Fortitude; 5 damage and a smokey zone is created which lasts until the end of the encounter.  Creatures that enter this zone gain Superior Cover and take 5 damage.

Alignment: Chaotic Evil Languages: Primordial

Str 17 (+11) Dex 18 (+12) Wis 19 (+12) Con 21 (+13) Int 16 (+11) Cha 14 (+10)

Typical Encounter:

• Level 18 Encounter, (9,300xp plus ~1,400xp in additional summons)
• Smoker - 17 Elite.  3,200xp
• 12 Salamander Bodyguard - Level 12 Minion.  2,100xp
• 2 Salamander Nobels - Level 15 Standard.  2,400xp (MM 227)
• 2 Magma Brutes - Level 13 Standard.  1,600xp (MM 183)

I beleive I've met the following optional elements in this entry:

1. Boss: The creature is described as typically being accompanied by creatures of the minion type that are Large, Huge or Gargantuan in size. The minions need not be fully statted, but should be adequately described.
11. Type: The creature is an Aberration, Construct, Elemental, Plant, and/or Undead.
12. Unusual Movement: The creature has a speed or power that allows it to travel through a medium other than air (i.e., burrow, phase, swim, etc.)  (Walking and flying do not satisfy this element.)

If breaking the forum width a little is terribly annoying to anyone let me know and I'll stack those two minions stat blocks - it just looked like a giant wall of statblocks to me and I wanted to cut down on the submissions length. *Looks like the forums won't accept width breaking tables, it just cut off a portion of the statblock text. 

I think I have everything done, for once, and it's in before the deadline, for once.  Hope you all enjoy!

BTW, I considered making up a few normal Ash Titans and throwing them up onto the forums somewhere and cross posting them here.  Anyone interested in that, or is that outside the intention of this thread?

The list is updated!

The Second Most Fearsome Tiny Creatures... Show

oh god, I wished I never opened that spoiler block. now I'll have nightmares for week!
Heck, I'll have to start playing call of chuthulu just for my dreams to calm down ...

Jan 14, 2010 -- 12:02AM, Qube wrote:

oh god, I wished I never opened that spoiler block. now I'll have nightmares for week!
Heck, I'll have to start playing call of chuthulu just for my dreams to calm down ...

Funny, I had a feeling he was going to put up a picture of those little pigmie dudes from Act III of Diablo II.  Now THOSE guys give me nightmares...especially on Nightmare level.

Only 5 entries with just 36 hours to go? Where are you people? What have you been doing?

Nothing important obviously. Stop laughing at wrecan's posts and start getting those entries in already!

(This message brought to you by the judge-who-would-have-entered-this-contest-in-a-heartbeat-if-he-wasn't-judging)

I've been kicking around ideas! I need to decide whether to with the Discworld tribute or revisit tiny oozes.

Jan 14, 2010 -- 11:50AM, Veok wrote:

I've been kicking around ideas! I need to decide whether to with the Discworld tribute or revisit tiny oozes.

I can't remember anything in diskworld that is tiny? (well except that demon-in-a-box painter)

Garden Gnome (Tiny Humanoid)

These minute gnomes are much like their larger cousins, and often live in the same settlements. They also occasionally live in human or halfling areas, eking out an existance as tailors, cleaners, and performing other jobs in which their small size is a benefit.

Str10+0            Int13+1
Con12+1          Wis11+0
Dex14+2          Char15+2

* Tiny size. +2 bonus to Armor Class, +2 bonus on attack rolls, +8 bonus on Hide checks, -8 penalty on grapple checks, lifting and carrying limits 1/2 those of Medium characters. Space is 2 1/2 feet and reach is 0 feet.
* A garden gnome’s base land speed is 20 feet.
* Low-light vision.
* +2 racial bonus on saving throws against illusions.
* Add +1 to the Difficulty Class for all saving throws against illusion spells cast by gnomes. This adjustment stacks with those from similar effects, such as the Spell Focus feat.
* +1 racial bonus on attack rolls against kobolds and goblinoids (including goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears).
* +4 dodge bonus to Armor Class against creatures of the giant type (such as ogres, trolls, and hill giants).
* +2 racial bonus on Listen checks.
* +2 racial bonus on Craft (alchemy) checks.
* Automatic Languages: Common, Gnome. Bonus Languages: Draconic, Dwarven, Elven, Giant, Goblin, Orc.
* Spell-Like Abilities: 1/day—speak with animals (burrowing mammal only, duration 1 minute). A gnome with a Charisma score of at least 10 also has the following spell-like abilities: 1/day—dancing lights, ghost sound, prestidigitation. Caster level 1st; save DC 10 + gnome’s Cha modifier + spell level.
* Favored Class: Bard.

hope i got everything......

Welcome to the XDMCs, Roxas.  You should know, however, that this is a Fourth Edition competition. 

ok sorry....

Jan 14, 2010 -- 4:10PM, wrecan wrote:

Welcome to the XDMCs, Roxas.  You should know, however, that this is a Fourth Edition competition. 

My 3e is rusty, but it looks like a good submission; just the wront ruleset.  Roxas1364, maybe you can rework it in 4e terms and post after the contest is over?  Besides, I have a soft spot for Harry Potter stuff.  :D

Firemote

While we might see the Firemote, Pyronus minimus, as the least of all elementals, its nature is not nearly so benign. A firemote may, as we detailed last class, be summoned through a trivial summoning ritual but in reality, they are something more than a hungry spark. As you can see on the projector, each Firemote was born from the death of the significantly more powerful Consumer, Pyronus horribilus. Consumers were known to have been employed by the First Kontari Warmaker in 1705, during his siege of the rebel Konnaeus holdfast at Rulaan. As the light-dedicated Lady Itriana Konnaeus struck down the besieging Consumers, each was revealed to have a core made of a single amber crystal, some as large as two feet in diameter.

These crystals, without the heat of the Consumer to hold them aloft, plummeted to the ground, shattering (or at least fragmenting) them. Each of the thousands of shards of the great Consumer's crystalline heart begat a Firemote and each of those rushed forth to start more fires. Once a Firemote had started a fire, it would sit in the conflagration, basking in the heat and ash as a lizard would on a rock. The fire provides the Firemote with the energy it needs to sustain its peculiar form of life and fuels its growth.

In time (and by time, I mean decades or centuries), Firemotes accrue enough energy to metamorphose into a larger, more aggressive and destructive elemental, Pyronus ignitus, the Igniter (or Korothi Igniter or Firestarter or Abyssal Firewalker, whatever your local hedgewizard called it). And as you can see with this slide, Pyronus ignitus is just the second stage of the life cycle of the same deadly Consumer that begat the Firemotes you see in this jar.

Now, please take notes on the Firemote's behavior as it will be on this term's examination. Those of you watching via a Technocrat Dictor, please set the device's storage unit to the Taxonomy bin and make sure that the translation crystal is properly working.

- Professor Yero Fain
Esteemed and Honored Lecturer of Elemental Biology
Edimithion Academy of Sciences 1906-1931

The Firemote is a tiny spark of a fire elemental, a glowing amber shard not more than one half of a centimeter in length. The heat of the Firemote can be felt several feet away and they can be seen by creatures with any infravision at a range of 1000 feet given line-of-sight.

Arcana DC 10 The Firemote is the sort of menace that most rural folk consider more immediate than humanoids or more beligerent monsters because Firemotes start fires and sit in them, keeping them going until all fuel nearby is consumed. A single Firemote, left unchecked, can destroy a farm in a matter of hours and a village in a day. Fortunately if you can stand the pain of grabbing it, the creature can be killed with a barrel of water.

Arcana DC15 Firemotes are immature Consumers, formed by the destruction of the Consumer's inner core crystal.

Arcana DC20 Firemotes roam the Primordial Chaos, serving as food for immature salamanders and other elemental humanoids. They may be summoned easily using a very minor ritual:

Minor Ritual of Elemental Summoning
With a bit of kindling, a tiny circle and a pinhole portal to the plane of fire, you call forth a spark of elemental life.
Level 2                              Component Cost: 20gp
Category: Ritual                  Market Price: 50gp
Timne: 30 minutes                Key Skill: Arcana
Duration: Permanent?
Caster summons a Firemote. The firemote will immediately seek out the nearest fire and if none is present or accessible, it will start one. The Firemote is not controllable. The ritual requires a very small summoning circle to be scribed on a (preferably) difficult-to-ignite surface and a bit of a highly flammable object to lure it through the portal. Cloth soaked in lamp fuel works well for this.

Streetwise DC15 Firemotes are commonly used as permanent heat sources by the wealthy or foolish and as clandestine tools of mayhem by criminals.

Firemote Level 1 Artillery Tiny elemental animate (fire) XP 100

Initiative +3 Senses Perception +0; firesense (can sense normal fires; infravision

Ignition Aura (Fire) aura 0 (only the square that the Firemote occupies is affected); effect - all flammable materials within the aura ignite. All creatures in the square of the Firemote take 1 fire damage

HP 22; Bloodied 11

AC 13; Fortitude 13, Reflex 16, Will 13

Immune poison; petrification; disease Resist 20 Vulnerability 5 cold.

Speed 2 fly 6

Action Points 0

Flame Lick (standard, at-will) Fire

+7 vs AC; 1d6+3 fire damage

Spark (standard, at-will) Fire +5 vs Reflex; 1d6+3 fire damage

Burst of Flame (standard, encounter recharge ) Fire

Close Burst 2; +3 vs Reflex; 3d6+3 fire damage

Alignment Unaligned

Languages Primordial

Skills none

Str 7 (-2)	Dex 16 (+3)	Wis 10 (+0)
Con 10 (+0)	Int 9 (-1)	Cha 10 (+0)

A Firemote is, at its heart, the elemental equivalent of a tadpole. It will eat and eat (burn and burn) until it finally (over centuries) matures into:

Consumer Level 22 Elite Brute Huge elemental animate (fire) XP 8,300

Initiative +16 Senses Perception +16; infravision

Conflagration Aura (Fire) aura 2 All enemies which start their turn in the Conflagration Aura take 10 fire damage.

HP 514; Bloodied 257

AC 34; Fortitude 35, Reflex 34, Will 34

Immune poison; disease; petrification Resist 30 Fire Vulnerable 10 Cold and Conflagration Aura is reduced to range 0 until the end of the Consumer's next turn.

Speed 6 fly 6 (at the end of any turn, the Consumer must be no more than one square above a horizontal surface)

Action Points 1

Fiery Smash (standard, at-will) Fire

Reach 2; +25 vs AC; 4d6+8 damage

Fire Bolt (standard, at-will) Fire

Range 20; +23 v Reflex; 3d6+8 damage

Flash Fire (Standard, recharge ) Fire

Close burst 2; +23 vs Reflex; 2d10+8 damage. effect: 10 ongoing damage (fire) (save/heal ends)

Jet of Living Flame (Move, encounter, recharges when first bloodied ) Fire

Range 10. Burst 4. 3d10+8 damage. Effect: Consumer teleports into the burst area. Any creature in a square to be occupied by the Consumer takes an additional 2d6 damage and is pushed 1d6 squares from their position.

Alignment Chaotic Evil

Languages Primordial

Skills none

Str 21 (+16)	Dex 21 (+16)	Wis 21 (+16)
Con 27 (+19)	Int 21 (+16)	Cha 21 (+16)

Adventure Ideas (all Heroic Tier)

Man on the Inside - someone in His Majesty's Prison at Arimas has been setting fires, and there have been casualties amongst the guards. Lord Priam Sammil of the Home Legion wants you, unknown heroes, to find the responsible parties. Someone has summoned a few Firemotes and has been letting them loose in vital areas. Dodge prison gangs and nonhuman prisoners (and the occasional shivving in the showers) to find the summoner and figure out how they're doing it (maybe leaving the little thing floating on a bit of wood in a cup of water - the water boils away slowly and the Firemote escapes).

Fallout - a recent war has left the countryside littered with the remains of dangerous creatures of war, including a Consumer's crystal. When the crystal is inadvertently broken, the Firemotes must be tracked down and handled. Big rewards if they can do no damage at all.

oop - elements - Origin, Summoner, Immature thingy

erdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;">Carrion Crawler Hatchling Level 2 Minion Brute
Tiny Abberant Beast XP 33

Initiative: +3 / Senses Perception +0; darkvision
HP: minion
AC: 14 Fortitude: 13 Reflex: 15 Will: 12
Speed: 6, Climb 6 (spider climb)

Bite ( standard, at-will )
+5 vs AC, 7 damage

Alignment: Unaligned Languages -
Str 12 ( +2 ) Dex 14 ( +3 ) Wis 9 ( +0 )
Con 11 ( +1 ) Int 2  ( -3 ) Cha 7 ( -1 ) 

Poisonous Young Carrion Crawler Level 2 Controller
Tiny Abberant Beast XP 125

Initiative: +2 / Senses Perception +1; darkvision
HP: 37 / Bloodied 18
AC: 16 Fortitude: 14 Reflex: 13 Will: 12
Speed: 6, Climb 6 (spider climb)

Tentacles ( standard, recharges when using Murderous Competition ) <> Poison
+6 vs Fort, 1d4+3 damage, 5 ongoing poison damage and the target is slowed (save ends both)
A target that is already slowed, is immobilized instead (save ends)
A target that is already immobilized, is dazed and restrained instead (save ends)

Bite ( standard, at-will )
+7 vs AC, 1d10+3 damage

Murderous Competition ( minor, at-will )
Targets an adjacent Carrion Crawler Hatchling; the Hatchling is destroyed and the Poisonous Carrior Crawler regains 9 Hit points and recharges its Tentacles attack.

Alignment: Unaligned Languages -
Str 14 ( +3 ) Dex 13 ( +2 ) Wis 11 ( +1 )
Con 13 ( +2 ) Int 2  ( -3 ) Cha 9  ( +0 ) 

Information on young Carrior Crawlers:
Newly hatched Carrion Crawlers arrive looking much like adult ones, only much smaller. They are roughly 4 inches long, and their tentacles are harmless.
After hatching, hundreds of little ones come forth, only to start attacking and eating each other immediately.
When the first feeding spree is done, usually no more then a hundred have survived.

These start growing at an alarming rate, continuously feeding on each other and everything else edible in the direct area. After a week or so, they've almost tripled in size (standing at some 10 inches in length).

By this time, some three dozen will have survived and the Crawlers will mostly change their diet from each other, to everything else.

Usually halfway through the second week, the first crawlers will start developing their poison. 
By this time, the crawlers will mostly leave each other alone and eat carrion, although they will still fight each other for it and eat one another if nothing else is available.

Young crawlers will stay in the room that hatched them, until they are driven away from it. They will starve to death if nothing shows up.
Knowing this, somewhere near the end of the first month, their mother will move into the room. She'll eat any young ones she can catch, scattering the remainder around the area.

Now alone, these crawlers will grow to full size on their own, moving through the sewers, forests, or caves they were first birthed into.

Adult Carrion Crawlers are rumoured to keep growing larger forever, although most specimens are hunted down and killed off by skilled hunters or adventurers before they become a danger to the area.
Most common crawlers do not make it past some 12 feet in length, although big ones can manage 30 feet.
Rumors exist of Carrior Crawlers in secluded areas that managed to grow up to 120 feet in length, feeding on big animals like Elephants, although those stories are rare and few.

LORE:
This is in addition to the standard lore for Carrior Crawlers (found on page 40 of the Monster Manual)
DC 15: Carrior Crawler childhood is a brutal, eat-or-be-eaten existance. Most young crawlers perish before the end of their first day.
Even fewer can make it to the end of the week.

DC 20: Carrior Crawlers start developing small doses of poison somewhere in the second week of their life.
This poison is dangerous to humanoids, though not as strong as that of a full-grown crawler.
You can see when a Crawler is poisonous, because when that happens their tentacles start flailing around as they move, instead of limply hanging from their heads.

SCENARIO IDEAS
As you crawl through the sewers, you run into a big heap of trash. From within comes chittering, and swarms of small centipede like creatures pour out, hungry for their next meal.
Just as you try to clear the area out, a massive version of the creature bursts into the room... mommy's home!

A crazy wizard has had a Carrior Crawler pet for a long time, but after he blew himself up in an experiment, the creature ran rampant in his laborotory.
Eventually, it layed eggs, and now the entire wizard's tower is infected with Crawlers in all sizes.

Elements used:

 Immature: The creature is the immature or larval form of a creature that is Huge or Gargantuan when fully grown.  The adult need not be fully statted, but should be adequately described.
Multiple Creatures: The entry provides at least two stat blocks wth each tiny-sized creature fulfilling a different role (artillery, brute, controller, skirmisher, or soldier)  Each stat block must meet each of the other optional elements sought to be met.  (An entry cannot cannot satisfy this element and "Brute" element). 
Type: The creature is an Aberration, Construct, Elemental, Plant, and/or Undead. 

Sorry about the poor formatting, but I've had it with this horrible forum and I'm not going to waste my entire evening just to end with something that still looks like crap.

The list is updated!  Less than six hours left!!

The wood door shattered as the Barbarian burst into the room. "We have you now, Lich! You shall trouble the villagers no more!"

The Lich in question was at a desk, completely engrossed in a ritual scroll. It looked up, raising a single shriveled eyebrow.

"Did you see the Jewelry Boxes in the main room?"

The Barbarian cocked his head, unsure of the Lich's intent.

"And?"

The goliath winced as the rogue screamed, shrill and sudden.

"You should have looked more closely..."

Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box Level 14 Brute Tiny Fey Animate (blind, construct, homunculus) XP 1,000

Initiative +10 Senses Perception +10; Blindsight

Palpable Menace  aura 1; Creatures within the aura take a -2 attack penalty against the Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box and its Owner. This is a fear effect.

HP 173; Bloodied 86

AC 26; Fortitude 26, Reflex 26, Will 27

Resist 5 all ; Vulnerable 5 Force

Speed 5

Snapping Lid (Standard, at-will)

Melee 0; +17 vs AC; 3d6 + 6 and the target is grabbed until escape.

Vicegrip (Minor, at-will (1/turn) )

Targets a grabbed creature. (once/round)        +15 vs Fortitude; 1d10 + 6 and ongoing 5. (Save ends)

Confounding Interdiction (immediate interrupt, recharge )

Trigger: A creature moves within 2 squares of the Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box; Effect: The Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box makes a charge attack against the triggering creature. The Sapient Pearwood Jewelry box gets +4 to its AC versus opportunity attacks during the charge, and can move through other creature's spaces.

Guard Owner

The Sapeint Pearwood Jewelry Box takes half damage from all area and close attacks originating from its guarded person.

Locate Owner

The Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box intrinsically knows the location of its owner, and given enough time, will find it. This ability works across all planes; even ritual banishment or imprisonment can only delay the Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box.

Alignment unaligned or same as Owner Languages common (cannot speak)

Skills Stealth +15 (+25 in indoor areas such as libraries or studys)

Str 17(+10) Dex 17(+10) Wis 16(+10) Con 23(+13) Int 12(+8) Cha 17(+10)

Sapient Pearwood is an interesting plant, growing only in rare corners of the Feywild. It is noted for its incredible hardness and durabillity and innate resistance to magical energies. Objects fashioned from Sapient Pearwood are incredibly loyal to their owners, viciously defending them in combat, or simply finding them when the owner invariably wanders off.

While generally people craft larger objects out of the magical woodstuff, Sapient Pinewood Jewelry Boxes are becoming more popular among certain sects of Eladrin, as they are less obviously antagonistic as the standard animated Luggage, Suitcase, or Trunk.

Tactics

Sapient Pearwood Jewelery Boxes never initiate combat unless their owner is in danger, or something is actively preventing it from reaching its owner. Once engaged, the Jewelery Box is single minded, attacking one enemy repeatedly until it can use Confounding Interdiction to latch onto a new target. If ever its owner is slain, the Jewelery Box goes beserk, focusing on the offender who dealt the killing blow. If it manages to survive the fight, it will most likely journey into the Shadowfell, seeking the soul of its departed Owner.

Lore

• Arcana (DC 18): Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Boxes are small, but should not be understimated. If they sense fear or weakness, several dozen legs will appear on the underside of the small box, rapidly propelling the box in a direction of its choosing.
• Arcana (DC 21): A Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box can open its lid to reveal, not an extradimensional space, but rows upon rows of fearsome wooden teeth. Their bite is painful and nasty, and has been known to immobilize grown men with pain.
• Arcana (DC 23): A Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box can always find its owner, even if they are imprisoned, or trapped on another plane. The interior of a Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box is not constrained by its external dimensionality. Very rich wizards use them as bags of holding for their magical accessories.
• History (DC 18): The durability of Sapient Pearwood is nearly unmatched. In ages past, reclusive Eladrin mages were known to fight foes with the help of their Sapient Pearwood Luggage, fully confidant that the homunculi containers would not be overly damaged.

Scenarios

• We Have You -- GURK!: The PCs burst in on the Lich who has been terrorizing the nearby region. The Lich is alone in his study, his undead minions already slain. It looks like an easy win for the PCs -- until the Lich's cosmetic boxes jump to its aid! (E.g:1 Lich (Human Wizard, and 3 Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Boxes, level 14 encounter, 5,000 xp)
• Jail...break?: When the Drow Thief Jax Steelwind was finally captured, some of his associates decided to cut their losses and rob their old boss' abode. Unwittingly they released his Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box from storage. The homunculus immediately set off after Jax, breaking enough prison walls in its flurry to return to its owner that the crafty rogue was able to escape. Steelwind is roaming the streets again, now with a new appreication for Jewelry Box induced bludgeoning. (E.g:1 Drow Stingblade (Jax), 1 Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box, 1 Shadar-Kai Dawnkiller, 1 Duergar Blasphemer, 5 Drow Underlings, level 14 encounter, 5,000 xp)
• Protection Racket: The PCs need to do The Don a favor. Maybe they want some information. Maybe he helped the law look the other way. At any rate, one recalcitrant merchant hasn't paid his dues to The Don. The PCs need to go in and 'convince' him to do so. What they don't know, is that the merchant in question is a Vampire Jeweler -- one who recently recieved a Sapient Pearwood Jewlery Box as a gift. (E.g: 1 Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box, 1 Vampire Guildmaster, 1 Human Murderer, 1 Drow Warrior, Level 12 encounter 3,500 xp)

Optional Elements #2, #8 (Check the Statblock!), #11

List updated with a half-hour to go!

ROFL, awesome entry Veok.  I crack up at the thought of an adventuring party being decimated by wave of ravenous furniture. 

And the contest is closed!!

Jan 15, 2010 -- 9:01PM, wrecan wrote:

And the contest is closed!!

Poop, forgot to check the timezone.
Put-off working on my entry after a massive cold kicked my butt this week and was just doing the finishing touches. Stupid finicky html.

Eh, guess I'll have to work harder and faster next time. 

Jan 15, 2010 -- 9:01PM, wrecan wrote:

And the contest is closed!!

Wouldn't that make me the last minute stampede? Huzzah!

Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box Show

Here is my supplemental entry.

Pseudofamiliar

Not all entities from the Far Realms are tentacled monstrosities of gibbering mounds of pulsating flesh.  Some are more subtle, more insidious, a deadly creature in a tiny package.

The pseudofamiliar is a bit of spirit fluff from the Far Realms.  Some believe it to be a coalesced piece of madness, others that it is an embryonic form of some larger creature.  Whatever it is, it is known to be a deadly parasite that feeds off the mental energies of those who wield the Arcane Power Source. 

When rituals study the Far Realms, they are often careful to ensure that the hulking aberrations there do not escape to the natural world.  But these tiny pseudofamiliars can often seep through the tiniest cracks in their wards, swarming into the natural world in search of arcane psychic energies on which to feed.  They will seek out a spellcaster of appropriate learning and experience and, as he sleeps, insinuate itelf into his psyche, replacing the caster's beloved familiar. 

The pseudofamiliar prefers casters who live in solitude, as they are more easily dominated into not realizing their curse, and can often drain the caster until he is nothing but a husk.  Sometimes, however, a pseudofamiliar will mistakenly attach itself to an adventuring spellcaster.  In those cases, the aberration will prepare for the eventuality that it will be discovered, and will reach out telepathically, recruiting powerful creatures to confront the heroes, giving it information it has learned while infiltrating the party to help the creatures formulate a superior strategy.  The pseudofamiliar will hope the creatures can take out the other heroes so it can keep the spellcaster until drained dry.  Otherwise, these creatures may make good cover while it escapes.

A pseudofamiliar appears as the familiar it has suppressed and replaced.  When unlinked, the pseudofamiliar appears as a tiny wisp of ether with two malevolent, hungering glowing red points of light for eyes.  It darts to and fro, rippling in an unseen wind, and gives off a cold chilly and unsettling presence.

Pseudofamilar	Level 9 Brute (leader)
Tiny aberrant magical beast	XP 400
Initiative +13; Senses Perception +14 HP 117; Bloodied58 AC 21; Fortitude 18; Reflex 21; Will 28 Immune disease; poison; Resist insubstantial, 5 psychic Speed 6, fly 6 (hover); phasing
Familiarize (standard; at-will) ♦ Charm, Polymorph, Psychic
A pseudofamiliar that spends one hour adjacent to a helpless familiar's master takes on the appearance of the familiar and is able to mimic the abilities of the familiar, including its psychic link with the master.  As long as the link is active, the master cannot invoke the familiar and will believe the pseudofamiliar is the master's familiar.  Moreover, while the link is active, the pseudofamiliar cannot use any of its powers except those of the familiar, telepathy, and Puppeteer (see below).  The pseudofamiliar can end the link at will, but doing so exposes the ruse.  After one week, the master will lose a healing surge after every extended rest.  The healing surge cannot be regained while the link is active.  The master will resist any attempts to investigate this link.  A master who has lost all healing surges is rendered unconscious and dying.
Puppeteer (standard; encounter) ♦ Charm, Psychic
Close burst 10; if the master is within the burst, it is dominated until the end of the encounter (no save).  This power can only be used while the psedofamiliar has an active link with its master.
Psychic Claw (standard; at-will) ♦ Psychic
Melee 1; +12 vs Will; 2d6+5 psychic damage
Psychic Bolster (minor; encounter) ♦ Healing, Psychic
Close burst 5; all allies in burst heal 10 hp and, until the end of the pseudofamiliars next turn, gain a +2 to defenses against attacks with the Fear keyword, and cannot be Intimidated.
Stuck Like Glue (move; at-will) ♦ Teleportation
The creature teleports into the square of its former master, if it has line of sight.
Martyr the Master (immediate interrupt; at-will)
Personal; If the pseudofamiliar occupies the same square as its former master, and the pseudofamiliar is hit by a ranged or melee attack, the attack is treated as targeting the master rather than the pseudofamiliar.
Alignment Evil; Languages Common, Deep Speech, Telepathy (1 mile) Skills Arcana +11, Insight +14, Stealth +12 Str 11 (+4); Dex 17 (+7); Wis 20 (+9) Con 17 (+7); Int14 (+6); Cha 14 (+6)

Lore (Arcana)
DC 15: A pseudofamiliar is a shadowy creature who escaped from the Far Realms
DC 20: It insinuates itself in the psyche of an arcanist by replacing its familiar.  It is basically cowardly, but if exposed, it can be vicious, using its former host as a shield, attacking people telepathically, and summoning larger creatures to aid it.
DC 25: It is naturally insubstantial, and as an alien intelligence from beyond the farthest reaches, it cannot be poisoned or diseases, and its mind is incomprehensible to all but the insane.

Scenarios

1. The pseudofamiliar replaces a party spellcaster's familiar.  It is also planning to construct a portal to the Far Realm by dominating the caster while the party sleeps, and having it use his own ritual components in the building of the portal.  If it succeeds, monstrous aberrations from the Far Realm will pore through, while the pseudofamiliar tries to dominate its master into stepping through the portal.  If exposed, it will try to kill the master out of spite before escaping through the portal.
2. A wizard NPC with whom the party has had good relations is suddenly acting odd.  He has become reclusive and strange.  When the PCs visit, he is sickly and pale, and giving an inordinate amount of attention to his familiar, talking to it in strange manners and even seeking its advice before speaking or acting.  If the PCs investigate, the pseudofamiliar is exposed.  However, it has hired some local thugs to act as security, and they will keep the PCs busy while the pseudofamiliar makes its escape.

Optional Elements
2.  Brute. The creature is a Brute
11. Type.  The creature is aberrant.
12. Unusual Movement.  The creature can phase.

Wrecan, that reeealy looks like a controller, more then a brute, you know although I would add the optional element 'Housepet'

I was thinking it could also be a lurker.  But it's contoller-ish powers only take place when the pseudofamiliar isn't engaged in combat.  In combat, the pseudofamiliar has two powers -- psychic claw and its leaderish healing power.

Jan 15, 2010 -- 11:49PM, Qube wrote:

Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box

a nice entry, but next time I would recommend revising it; or sumbitting it earlier, so there is still time to adjust it. Some points

• 'Senses' isn't filled in (no percetion, no indication what its special senses are)
• the defenses seem to be strange IMO: with CON+13, DEX+10 WIS+10, how does it get Fort 26 Refl 26 Will 27 ? (and AC the same as reflex - but that's beside the point). wouldn't something like AC 27 Fort 28 Refl 25 Will 25 be much more logical?
• Confounding Interdiction is "attack bonus vs target defense" instead of the actual number, and the actual defense
• (I my personal oppinion) I don't think the Alignment isn't correct by cannon. I think a Sapient Pearwood is lawful good: it follows a law (help its owner) and it puts others (its owner) before himself. I think a chaotic evil animate object helps his boss because he's forced to, but will escape the first chance it gets
• About the +10 stealth bonus: I'dd need to check the MM, but IIRC the way to specify the bonus is to have a power that grants it, not a simple additional bonus in the 'skills' block. I mean, why does a Jewelry Box have a larger bonus is a libraries or studys (if humans in a bussy area don't have such a bonus?)?

In order: yes, real life came up. It happens. It was last minute. Oh well.

• Fixed
• defenses do not always correlate to stats
• Alignment is a matter of opiion - is the minion loyally protecting its boss from the law abiding adventurers really "Lawful good" ? Loyalty =/= lawful. Also, not everything translates perfectly between the worlds. "Completely immune to magic" doesn't quite work for Sapient Pearwood.
• I think It's been done both ways. The bonus is there because if you see a jewelry box inside a building, how likely are you to think "Oh, that might be a ravenous wooden construct" versus "Oh, someone left their jewelry box out". Otherwise, it's just the monster's innate Stealth modifer.

Thanks for the feedback.

defenses do not always correlate to stats

they don't ?
opening MM on random pages (for the recond page 60-61 / 156-157 / 208-209 /  ) ... are you sure about that?

The bonus is there because if you see a jewelry box inside a building, how likely are you to think "Oh, that might be a ravenous wooden construct" versus "Oh, someone left their jewelry box out".

To use your words: if you see a jewelry box person inside a building market place, how likely are you to think "Oh, that might be a ravenous wooden construct homocidal maniac" versus "Oh, someone left their jewelry box out there are other people here". ?

On the other hand, with your creation: Bob the Fighter got bitten by a ravenous wooden construct that looks exaclty like a jewerly box. It ran away into the wizards study, but brave Bob went after it. searching the place all he can find is a lot of books, some clothing, and a munaine looking jewerly box. Bob obviously has no idea where the ravenous wooden construct that looks exaclty like a jewerly box is ... catch my drift? *

_{*: Bob the Fighter is a character I once made: he's a bard calling himself Bob the Fighter to confuse his enemies. So "that's because the fighter sucks" isn't the answer ...}

The debate can be made that the luggage was lawful... but certianly not good.

I would err towards unaligned myself, but certainly the case could be made that the pearwood plants are lawful good and as its magic properties are what makes the furniture animated and loyal they maintain that alignment.  Sadly there is no Lawful keyword or alignment in 4th outside of LG, so a great many things fall into Unaligned when they would have Lawful neutrals or Chaotic goods of editions past. 

Also, your stats don't have to correlate to defenses at all.  The DMG section on building monsters mentions that the stats help determine AC (not other defenses) but reading further it shows that AC is the only one not (as written) affected by the stats - only F/R/W defenses are adjusted by deviance from the average.  To put it bluntly the ideas put forth in that section are poorly conveyed but the table at the bottom gives you a good approximation of where your numbers should be - but having the freedom to fiddle with the numbers so they make more sense is essential to making interesting and well thought out monsters.  It's much more an art than a science - and thus it's important not to solely rely on the metrics when analyzing creatures. 

Looking through the MM2 at random creatures I've found they don't match up to the RAW either.  Bullywug Mud Lord (MM2 29) has low Fort and high Will, and the damage values are out for Electric Reflux.  Abyssal Eviscerator (MM2 51) has high Fort, low damage on Grab and Eviscerating Talons is possibly too good.  Genasi Hydromancer (MM2 117) has fine stats, but the attacks vs AC are off and its Whirling Vortex power damage is way too low.  None of them are married to the rules as written because they're better, more flavorful monsters because for it.

...going out to the shop to look at MM 2 ... well what do you know, you're correct, however,

• Bullywug Mud Lord's wisdom is still higher then its strength or constitution (its numbers are off with 1, but otherwise, high will, lower fort).
• Abyssal Eviscerator: same deal: highest STR, then DEX then WIS, which makes higest Fort, then Refl, then Will.

However, the Jewelry box has an extremely high consititution (its 6 higher then any other stat), yet its defenses are Fort 26 Refl 26 Will 27 (while BTW, DEX the same as CHA). Small discripencies can easely be flavored as a racial or class like bonus, But from where I'm sitting that doesn't look like "it doesn't match exaclty", but more like pseudo random numbers.

None of them are married to the rules as written because they're better, more flavorful monsters because for it.

how do you figure? would they be worse or less flavorfull if their defenses matched their stats?

Halfway there on the judging.  Copious amounts of comments and an irrational desire to watch the NFL playoff games are delaying me from finishing the rest.  Should have 'em done in the next day or so.

hatchling Show

Jan 17, 2010 -- 1:59PM, Qube wrote:

• 7 damage seems a bit much for a lvl 2 minion (from what my math has shown me, is that the damage of a minion is 1+mod a.k.a. the minion rolls ones on his damage dice) ... or am I mistaken
• its 'minion', not 'minion brute' , unless WotC also changed that.
• are carrion crawlers huge? I thought they were large (I'm just to laisy too look it up.)

7 damage is higher than the DMG2 suggests.  Minions in MM2 have roles.  Enormous Carrion Crawlers are huge.

Firemote Entry Show

Jan 17, 2010 -- 1:59PM, Qube wrote:

there's always printscreen ... (type it in a text editor, printscreen it, and post the jpg's)

otherwise, if you posted it earlier I would have gladly filled in a stat block for you (though I don't know If I'm allowed to do that - competition rules and all ...)

other then that

• 7 damage seems a bit much for a lvl 2 minion (from what my math has shown me, is that the damage of a minion is 1+mod a.k.a. the minion rolls ones on his damage dice) ... or am I mistaken
• aren't hatchlings usually lower level then their more adult form? (what made you decide on level 2 and not lvl 1?)
• its 'minion', not 'minion brute' , unless WotC also changed that.
• I would have opted to give the hatchling Fortitude 14 instead of 13 (as then it matches with the stats)
• starting the post with 'erdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:12px;">' ... the forum layout gods aren't kind to you ...
• I'm supposing Hatchling's Bite is mellee?
• nice flavor (very usable)
• are carrion crawlers huge? I thought they were large (I'm just to laisy too look it up.)

Yeah, the layout-gods aren't kind at all. Most likely because this forum was designed for precisely one kind of browser and never cross-platform tested. Chrome really mangles everything (can't even copy-paste from NOTEPAD) and Firefox leaves me with what I have now. I refuse to try Internet Exploder (that's probably what it was made for)

Thanks for the comments. The Bite should indeed be a Melee, I always forget that. As for the level, they're minions so they are weaker. Minions are often higher level then their regular brethren (check the Ogre, it's a level 8, with a level 11 & 16 minion form) because of how a minion should be used.

Minions have roles since MMII indeed, but I don't have it so I had to guess the damage. Since they're brutes they have low defenses, I can't really give them hitpoints, so I figured they should make up in damage. Hope I didn't overdo it. 

And yeah, they keep on growing, so the endstate for any Carrior Crawler would be Gargantuan, although the ones in the MM end with Huge. 

Thanks again, and I hope you or someone else gets some use out of them  

maybe this is just a nitpick, but could we have non-judges hold comments until after the judging is done (and posted)?

I think its a teensy bit rude to be commenting on actively judged items and it could color the judges views or muddy the water unnecessarily.

Edit - that said, the formatting issues are in the copy and paste from google docs.

Jan 18, 2010 -- 1:15AM, Fuka wrote:

I think its a teensy bit rude to be commenting on actively judged items and it could color the judges views or muddy the water unnecessarily.

Its not my intent on being rude. If a comment is valid,

• and you edit it before it is judged, its fixed and in fact saved points
• and is made after the entry is judged, no harm is done (the rules say once the points are sumbitted, they can't be changed)

the last point means that judges need to decide carefully, because if they give a wrong score, its unfixable. The chances that a quick peer review would point things out that a judge would have missed are nearly non-existant.

Traditionally, the XDMCs (and MDMCs before them) have always allowed people to post comments after the contest closes and before results are announced.  Comments help people become better DMs, which is really the heart of the competition.  If we bar comments until after the scores are announced, most people won't bother and that stifles the comment and constructive criticism.

Judges are not supposed to use comments when grading entries, but of course, we have no way to police that.

However, I do think it's a good idea for peopel to put comments in sblocks to prevent judges from indavertantly seeing the comments.

Jan 18, 2010 -- 5:54AM, wrecan wrote:

However, I do think it's a good idea for peopel to put comments in sblocks to prevent judges from indavertantly seeing the comments.

fixed.

squib Show

Jan 18, 2010 -- 5:54AM, wrecan wrote:

Traditionally, the XDMCs (and MDMCs before them) have always allowed people to post comments after the contest closes and before results are announced.  Comments help people become better DMs, which is really the heart of the competition.  If we bar comments until after the scores are announced, most people won't bother and that stifles the comment and constructive criticism.

Judges are not supposed to use comments when grading entries, but of course, we have no way to police that.

However, I do think it's a good idea for peopel to put comments in sblocks to prevent judges from indavertantly seeing the comments.

I second this idea.  I've had to deliberately skip over a lot of the posts to make sure that I didn't see something I "shouldn't" have.  SBlocks would be great to insulate us from the insidious comments meant to color and otherwise influence our unbiased and impartial commentary and opinions.

I wonder if I can get change for a $5 for that $1.50 sentence...?

Plusjen, you would probably have much more luck copying a google doc or word file into the forums if you saved it as a HTML document and edited the HTML of your entry with the built in entry. 

The HTML the forums use is sane, tho the output from word/docs might be cumbersome to dig through it's usually easy enough to figure out what the HTML tags do and what you can scrub from the document. 

I haven't really tried to use the comment editer to make a complex post - it's far easier to dig into the HTML and get it to do what you wish it to do in my experience.  So far however, it seems to work well enough in Firefox for me.  /shrug

squib Show

Unfortunatly, Word also generates an IE only HTML document (I don't have the program anyway)

Google Docs might be a good choice though; it's worth a try. Thanks for the tip. 

qube's miniature giant space hamster Show

Jan 17, 2010 -- 2:11AM, Qube wrote:

None of them are married to the rules as written because they're better, more flavorful monsters because for it.

how do you figure? would they be worse or less flavorfull if their defenses matched their stats?

Just to preface this, I agree that attributes should give an indication of how a creatures defenses will look.  But I don't think being married to the forumla is a good thing either.  I think we can agree that the flavor of a creature is still the most important part of the design process.  After all everything just gets boiled down to numbers and variables in the end, the primary motivation to play with those numbers is to suite the flavor of your creature. 

A thought experiment might help clear up my position on things.  Say we are creating a tiny pixie, some sort of caster (lets say an artillery role) of level 12.  By the book, one of the attributes in each defense set should be ~20 to get its defenses in line with the ~22 recommended for a creature of that level.  The mental stats wouldn't be hard to justify for a pint sized caster like this, 19-21 Int, Wis, Cha are all possibilities.  Having high dex makes sense as well, since it's such a small creature.  But having a high Str or Con is counterintuative to what a pixie is, and odd on a creature thats barely larger than a guinee pig. 
So, we have a choice in our design.  The STR score should probably be low, like 5-6, and the con score is left to determine more or less how strong our creatures Fort defense would  be.  We can:

• bring one of those stats up to the appropriate score (20) so their defenses match the formula. 
• assume such a tiny creature is going to have a lower Fort score and drop that stat to say 14, giving it a Fort score 3 below it's other defenses to represent a weakness. 
• give it a more realistic number, like 6-7, and assume there is some alternative source to bring up the Fort defense to a less skewed number since we don't want the Fort defense to be 7 below the rest.

Which is the better way to go is somewhat subjective, on one hand you're keeping combat balanced by sticking closely to the formulas at the expense of realistic attributes (and thus skills & ability checks) while on the other you're creating monsters that are more realistically statted but might have their defenses fudged a bit to reflect their strengths and weaknesses without overly stacking or weakening one or more of these scores. 

Personally, I much prefer entities that are built to work well at the level they are designed regardless of how much deviation from formula it took to get there.  I think fudging what needs to be fudged is one of the most important requirements of a DM, and unless you never need to use a creature for more than a punching bag the attention to detail during creation will pay off in the end.  I'm disinclined to create NPC shadows of my monsters to use when I could have a perfectly usable monster that was built with this inevitability in mind.

@Veok, about the GMSH Show

@Barp
indeed, as I was sleeping it over, I came to a simelar conclusion: removing a dependancy, makes it possible to create creatures that were previously impossible to make.

Another Tiny Terror! Show

Its like that chapter of Lord of the Rings that they skipped over in the movies.

Jan 15, 2010 -- 9:54AM, ClanBattlerage wrote:

Jan 14, 2010 -- 4:10PM, wrecan wrote:

Welcome to the XDMCs, Roxas.  You should know, however, that this is a Fourth Edition competition. 

My 3e is rusty, but it looks like a good submission; just the wront ruleset.  Roxas1364, maybe you can rework it in 4e terms and post after the contest is over?  Besides, I have a soft spot for Harry Potter stuff.  :D

well currently me and my friends play 3.5 edition but i will try to get into fourth edition

Got my scores submitted!  I'll post comments once all scores are tallied, etc.

Grr - and here I was hoping to be the first one done...

I'm over half-way done - so expect scores and comments from me soon-ish.

Thanks for the update, Clan and Telin

@wrecan - not sure if it is just me, but the link to Veok's entry is incorrect in the list of entries.

Okay - my scores are in. ClanBattlerage, Koradzi, wrecan- I added a couple of items to the discussion - just so you know to look there please.

Per my wife's request...my submission to the contest.  Comments/judging is encouraged and welcomed!

Rockdwelling Peashooter

The Rockdwelling Peashooter, or "Hooter" as dwarves disdainfully call them, are a race of tiny creatures which inhabit mountainous areas all over the world.  The Peashooter is similar in appearance to the more common "Walking Stick" insect found in more arboreal regions.  While not an insect, the creature's true classification has confounded sages and wizards alike for generations.

Its body is a mottled, stone-colored, "straw-like" tube, approximately 6-12 inches in length and sprouts four pairs of long, spindly legs that allow it to move with surprising speed.  The tubular body is usually no more than a 1/2 inch wide except for a curious bulb-like section near the back third of the creature.  At the other end is the creature's mouth; a ring of hard, very sharp teeth similar to that of a leech or lamprey.  Slightly back from the mouth is a pair of long, frond-like antennae almost as large as the creature itself.  It is believed that the Peashooter, apparently possessing no eyes or ears, uses these long hairs as a form of tremorsense, where it detects even the minutest of air currents to locate danger.

The Peashooter seems to exist for two reasons: eating rock and producing eggs.  Dwarves generally report "annoying the stones from ya and wrecking perfectly good tunnels" as part of the creatures' existence as well.  In a normal situation, Peashooters can be seen milling about on the sheer faces of mountainsides and cliffs, or wandering through caverns and tunnels underground.  They bore tiny tunnels into the rock as they eat, which crisscross through the stone at seemingly random directions.

Dwarves hate the Peashooters because an entire colony of the "Hooters" can honeycomb large sections of rock in an alarmingly short period of time, weakening the area and making it prone to cave-ins.  In fact, in virtually all encounters with Peashooters, some portion of the surrounding area is unstable, due to their tunneling.  The instability may manifest in the form of weakened floors (pit traps or simply unstable ground), weakened ceilings (cave-ins), unstable rock formations (avalanches), etc.  A successful passive Perception check (DC per DM's discretion) can alert PCs to the holes drilled by the Peashooters.

The Peashooters' tiny size and coloring make for an extremely effective natural camouflage when standing still on a rocky surface.  In fact, detecting a group of Peashooters is quite difficult, even for dwarves.  However, thanks to a quirk in evolution, the Peashooters often give themselves away by a curious sound they make.  When a Peashooter is agitated or feels threatened, it begins making a hollow, reed-like "hooting" sound, like one might expect from a pan-pipe.  Sages believe this hooting sound (which also gives them their nickname) comes from the Peashooters hyperventilating in preparation for combat.  This sound can be clearly heard for upwards of 50 feet and even more in confined areas such as tunnels.  A passive Perception check (DC 12) can alert PCs to their presence, though usually too late to avoid attack.

It is believed that the Peashooter is a sexless creature which produces and fertilizes its own eggs.  However, the eggs require a living host in which to develop.  Evolution has granted the Peashooters with a unique method of solving two problems at once; reproduction and defense: shooting "peas".  The "peas" in question are actually the creatures' eggs, which are believed to be stored in the bulge near the end of its body.  It fires these projectiles by inhaling deeply into the bulb-region of its body, then sharply contracting the area, launching the egg with tremendous force.  A successful hit has a chance of embedding the egg within the body of the target.

When the egg embeds, it immediately starts drawing minerals (such as calcium) from the host's body. It does this rapidly, causing weakness and ill-health in its host.  After a time, the larval creature hatches and begins eating its way free.  Once the youngling erupts from its host, it is mostly grown, though not able to produce eggs yet.  They try to escape the area as quickly as possible by drilling into the dirt.

Peashooters are surprisingly aggressive for such a small creature.  They will attack any creature that comes within range of their eggs. Sages believe that the Peashooters instinctively know how fragile they are and seek to reproduce as quickly and often as possible.

Lore:

Nature/Dungeoneering (DC10): The Rockdwelling Peashooter can be found in any natural stone area such as mountains or subterranean tunnels.  They blend into the surrounding area very well and are hard to detect.

Nature/Dungeoneering (DC15): Peashooters are called "Hooters" because of the hooting sound they make just before attacking.

Nature/Dungeoneering (DC20): A Peashooter's "pea" is actually an egg, which can cause disease-like symptoms in a victim struck by one.  The disease makes the victim sick and weak, though still able to function normally.

Scenarios:

- The PCs are wandering through the wilderness on some quest or another and have to cross through a small ravine between two hills or mountains.  The more observant members of the group may notice the holes drilled into the walls of the ravine or even the lack of natural "critter sounds".  Shortly after entering the area, they hear a soft "hooting" sound coming from all around them and echoing from the surrounding walls.  Then the barrage begins...

- While visiting a town in some remote mountainous area, the local magistrate contacts the PCs on a "vermin elimination" quest.  The local miners have been ambushed by a colony of Peashooters within the mines and have rendered them unable to work.  The town depends on the silver and gold mined for its commerce and the magistrate needs the Hooters to be cleaned out ASAP.

 

Rockdwelling Peashooter		Level 1 Minion Artillery
Tiny natural beast (earth, blind)		XP 75
Initiative +7	Senses Perception +2; tremorsense
Incessant Hooting (Fear) aura 3; creatures in the overlapping auras of 3 or more Rockdwelling Peashooters take -1 penalty to attack rolls
HP 1; a missed attack never damages a minion
AC 14; Fortitude 14, Reflex 20, Will 12
Speed 8, burrow 4
Bite (standard; at-will)
Reach 0; +5 vs AC; 2 damage
Shoot Pea (standard; at-will) ♦ Disease
Range 5; +8 vs AC; 3 damage. On a successful hit, target must make a saving throw.  Failure indicates that the egg has embedded itself in the target and the target is now diseased.  Success means the egg just bounced off after impact.
Burrowing Escape (move, recharge )
The Rockdwelling Peashooter burrows into the earth to escape melee combat.  This movement does not provoke an attack of opportunity.  The Rockdwelling Peashooter cannot be located without tremorsense until it surfaces (minor action).  It will stay underground long enough to get to a safe place from which to make ranged attacks.
Blend into Surroundings (free, at-will)
If the Rockdwelling Peashooter is on a natural earth or rock surface and does not move during its turn, it gains +2 Concealment until it moves.  Ranged attacks made by the Rockdwelling Peashooter do not end the concealment.
Alignment Unaligned	Languages --
Skills Stealth +9
Str 7 (-2)	Dex 19 (+4)	Wis 10 (+0)
Con 13 (+1)	Int 3 (-4)	Cha 10 (+0)

Peashooter Impregnation

Level 3 Disease
Attack: +4 vs. Fort
Endurance: Improve DC 17, maintain DC 13, worsen DC 12 or lower
Initial Effect: The target loses a healing surge that it cannot regain until healed.
1st Fail Effect: The target loses a second healing surge.
2nd Fail Effect: The target loses a third healing surge and takes 1d4 damage.
Final State: The target loses a fourth healing surge, takes 1d8 damage, and the baby Rockdwelling Peashooter emerges from the target's belly, stunning the target (save ends).  Once the baby emerges, the target is no longer diseased and regains lost healing surges after an extended rest.

Optionals used: #8 Natural Camouflage, #10 Traps, #12 Unusual Movement

The list is updated and the link to Veok's entry is fixed.  Sorry, Veok!

Okay, here's my comments. I want to start off with a general comment. I'm big about mechanics - so if I notice something is off - I'll probably make a mention of it. If any of the mechanical "mistakes" I list below were intentional - I think it would have served your entry a lot by having an explanation of why. In other words - consciously breaking the monster creation guidelines is one thing - having an explanation to support it is completely different.

Miniature Giant Space Hamster (Qube) Show

The Air Jelly (PowerAttackForTwenty) Show

Thieving Hand (11235) Show

Squibs (Jonathan_Vagabond) Show

Smoker, the Tiny Titan (Barmp) Show

Garden Gnome (Roxas1364) Show

Firemote (Fuka) Show

Carrion Crawler Hatchling (Pluisjen) Show

Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box (Veok) Show

Make sure to keep responses to the comments in sblocks for the sake of the other judges. Thanks.

My comments, also sblocked:

Qube's Miniature Giant Space Hamster (Animal Companion) Show

PowerAttackForTwenty's Air Jelly (Level 7 Elite Skirmisher) Show

11235's Thieving Hand (Level 7 Lurker) Show

Johnathan_Vagabond's Squibs (Level 2) Show

Barmp's Smoker, the Tiny Titan (Level 17 Elite Artillery) Show

Roxas1364's Garden Gnome (Third Edition PC race) Show

Fuka's Firemote (Level 1 Artillery) Show

Pluisjen's Carrion Crawler Hatchling (Level 2 Brute Minion) Show

Veok's Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box (Level 14 Brute) Show

@Clanbattlerage and TelinArtho Show

Jan 21, 2010 -- 10:23AM, ClanBattlerage wrote:

My comments, also sblocked:

Qube's Miniature Giant Space Hamster (Animal Companion) Show

Creativity is hurt as the MGSH isn't exactly an original idea.  Still, making it into a companion showed some creativity, so it's not terrible.  I threw in a couple extra points for actually finding a picture of Minsc with Boo.  Well done.    While cute, it seems that the only point for it is for fluff and roleplaying opportunities.  I guess from that perspective, it achieves its goal.  Unfortunately, it requires a beastmaster ranger, which requires the Martial Power book.  As the contest assumes the DM to possess the core set of books and DDI, you lose points there.  I actually had to borrow the book from a friend to even figure out what you were talking about.  Core themes were successfully achieved, but I think you REALLY had to stretch to get your optionals in.  "Housepet" doesn't apply (IMO) because it explicitly states in the element text "...despite its dangerous nature."  The MGSH doesn't come across as "dangerous."  "Aberrant" is really pushing it too.  You can make a case for it, but I'd lean more towards a "natural" type for the critter.  The "ritual" part is workable, though statting out the actual ritual would've been better.  Clarity was very good though.  Well-formatted and easy to read.  A link to the Wikipedia page would've been nice, but not required. 

response Show

Jan 21, 2010 -- 9:31AM, TelinArtho wrote:

Miniature Giant Space Hamster (Qube) Show

Required elements: Stat block might be okay for an animal companion - but the competition calls for a creature. In that respect - the entry fails on that level. Lore should be against Dungeoneering rather than Arcana since it is an aberrant creature.

Optional elements: House pet doesn't work since the MGSH doesn't have a "dangerous nature." Ritual and Type work for it. As for the others you list - "Immature" wouldn't work since it is a "Miniature Giant Space Hamster" - it is its own species - something which you mention specifically. Natural Camouflage would work - but I would have preferred to see it incorporated into the entry instead of mentioned as an aside.

Overall, the entry is kind of flat. Although it is presented in a reasonable format, this isn't a viable monster and I doubt that a ranger would opt for one as an animal companion since it is of limited use other than the comedic value of a space hamster. Creativity suffers since you are using an existing creature from another source as well.

response Show

= question, but as its not my intend to influence the third judge Show

Qube Show
wrecan's response Show

honestly i only started being a dm a couple of weeks ago and i personally prefare 3.5 edition i think im picking it up

Barmp's Smoker, ClanBattlerage's comments Show

Barmp's Smoker, TelinArtho's comments Show

Thank you both for the comments, I greatly appreciate feedback!  I'll address each individually.

TelinArtho Show

ClanBattlerage Show

My scores are in!

General comments: powers don't really need flavor text, and they're not proper Stat Block formatting.  I had sympathy for entries with ugly forum formatting, but the people who rose above the new forums did get a little extra love in the Clarity department.  I'm not too nitpicky on number crunching or spelling/grammar, but entries that do a flawless job in either department will see a return from it.  Individual comments follow:

Qube's Miniature Giant Space Hamster Show

PowerAttackForTwenty's Air Jelly Show

11235's Thieving Hand Show

Johnathan_Vagabond's Squibs Show

Barmp's Smoker Show

Fuka's Firemote Show

Pluisjen's Immature Carrion Crawlers Show

Veok's Sapient Pearwood Jewelry Box Show

Jan 21, 2010 -- 11:56PM, Koradzi wrote:

Qube's Miniature Giant Space Hamster Show

While this isn't the first time that the magnificent and noble Miniature Giant Space Hamster has made an appearance in the XDMCs, adapting the creature for use as an animal companion was a good thought and an interesting spin on the theme of the competition.  On the other hand, I feel compelled to give a higher Creativity score to entries that present a new and unique idea as compared to those that adapt existing concepts to the 4e ruleset, however cleverly they do so.

When it comes down to brass tacks, I'm not convinced that the MGSH as presented would be a practical choice as an animal companion.  The frailty and non-combat oriented nature of the Hamster would make it impractical for the Ranger to use most Beast powers, which kind of defeats the purpose of the animal companion-having build from a gameplay standpoint.  Personally, I don't think that the handful of bonuses granted by the pet make up for losing access to most of your build's features.

The fact that the Ritual for Element 9 is core material, rather than a Ritual created by the entrant for this competition, is a bit of a bummer.  The optional elements are a bit on the weak side overall, in my opinion.  The organization of the entry is excellent, and the formatting is logical and consistent.  The stat block leaves a little bit to be desired, but the entry is well-presented and very clear overall.

response Show

The judges' scores have been compiled.  As soon as the judges confirm the scores, they will be posted.  I'll give the judges until Sunday to confirm the scores. 

I'm not really comfortable with commenting on comments, but figure since it's the culture...

First - Thank you for the praise and for judging - it isn't an easy job.

rar commentcomments Show

Also - not to be a huge forum newbie, but - how do i code a spoiler block, cutting and pasting other people's blocks didn't work for me :/

Woot it worked, thanks Qube!

Also - not to be a huge forum newbie, but - how do i code a spoiler block, cutting and pasting other people's blocks didn't work for me :/

[sbl0ck=this is text] textB [/sbl0ck] with the 2 zero's '0' substituted by 'o' gives
this is text Show

Jan 21, 2010 -- 1:27PM, Qube wrote:

> requires the Martial Power book.

I did not know that martial power (or the beastmaster ranger) was not available for DDI members.
Edit: isn't in the character builder - which is available for DDI?

I sit corrected.  You're absolutely right; it is in DDI.  I didn't realize that they compile all of the source docs into one record.  I offer my heart-felt apologies...I'll check my sources a little more thoroughly next time. 

Jan 22, 2010 -- 12:14AM, Qube wrote:

response Show

> While this isn't the first time that the magnificent and noble MGSH has made an appearance in the XDMCs,

Oh? I was unaware of that.
edit: I can't seem to find it. do you recall which one?

XDMC #12.  Miniature Giant Space Hamster Experimental Killer Craft Delta (AKA MiGSHXKCD) by DaigotsuRezan

Jan 21, 2010 -- 11:56PM, Koradzi wrote:

Barmp's Smoker Show

This is simply a first-rate entry across the board.  The creature is funny and engaging, and the entry provides plenty of lore and background information to support the core concept.  This is a good example of how to make a creative concept work with the rules, rather than against them.  The formatting and presentation are top-notch, and both the required and optional elements are well-satisfied.  Providing a sample encounter was a good touch, too.  Absolutely excellent work all around.

I'm glad you liked it, tho I'm left with nothing to comment on (I never really expect a glowing review).  Looking back at the comments you gave my last entry in XDMC#12 were very helpful in correcting the areas I was weak in.  So thank you for the comments, again! 

>>>Scores are Here!<<<

Jan 21, 2010 -- 10:23AM, ClanBattlerage wrote:

MJohnathan_Vagabond's Squibs (Level 2) Show

I must admit I had to smile reading this entry.  The idea of a bunch of thieving "Dots" (remember the little jelly candies?) squishing around blasting stuff with elemental attacks while making little Nintendo "plopping" sounds just made me giggle.  While the "Jelly" concept is nothing new, making color/element-based ones is very good.  Even better is that each color is slightly different than the others, thus avoiding a "cookie cutter" mentality where just the attack methods change.  I could see a DM throwing in random encounters with squibs in them as 3rd party interlopers, interfering in battles, etc.  Stat blocks seem well-designed and balanced.  My only concern is the number of temp hps that the squibs gain from an attack.  I haven't seen many powers in 4e grant more than a handful of temp hps at any given time.  The idea of dropping 15-20 temp hps after an attack seems a little unbalanced.  An interesting twist on the idea would be to have the squib absorb the damage and "grow" to a new size.  For example, for every time a blue squib absorbs 2x its max hps in cold, it grows to the next largest size with an additional 1/2 max hps.  So it would go from tiny to small with 57 hps.  Then if it took 114 hps in damage, it would go from small to medium and 85 hps.  Something to think about.    Core themes addressed and optionals as well.  The thieving part is a little shaky, but workable.  The rest are solid.  Clarity was good with easy-to-read stat blocks.  Grammar/spelling could use some work, but wasn't significantly distracting.  More info on what kinds of alchemical reagents the squibs went after would be nice.  Otherwise, a solid and entertaining entry.

Originally I intended to have them split after taking a certain amount of the appropriate elemental damage.  But I decided it would be an unweildy thing to implement.

But, now that I give it consideration, it could simply spawn a level 1 minion, or even a trap, when it took 5 or more of the appropriate elemental damage.  That would have been a real blast from the past.

Nice, scores are up in record time!  Also, woot woot!  After the comments I figured I would do well but I'm surprised I got the gold.  Grats to Veok and Pluisjen for the medals as well, well earned. 

Wow. This is surprising. Thanks, Barmp, and congrats to Pluisgen.

Yay for 2nd Silver Medal!

Pluisjen,

I sent you an invite to the XDMC Judges' Group.  If you don't want to join, let me know here or in PM.  Then I can start the planning for XDMC 16.

Since the scores are now in, I really was wondering (as it affects my future entries in the XDMC)

In the wiki I read "Creativity measures the originality of a particular submission or how well it takes an existing idea and converts it into game terms."

How is the last part to be interpreted?

Jan 23, 2010 -- 10:16AM, Qube wrote:

Since the scores are now in, I really was wondering (as it affects my future entries in the XDMC)

In the wiki I read "Creativity measures the originality of a particular submission or how well it takes an existing idea and converts it into game terms."

How is the last part to be interpreted?

To be honest, the answer to that question is going to vary from one judge to the next.  When an entry draws from an existing concept, I tend to look at the first two bullet points under Creativity:

• Has the concept been previously seen in popular culture or in a published gaming product?
• Does the entry provide a new twist to or thoughtful parody of a common trope?

Personally, I'm going to tend to give a higher Creativity score to an entry that puts a new spin on an existing concept, cleverly lampoons cliches or tropes, or converts unexpected (i.e. non-fantasy) material into D&D mechanics than to an entry that effectively translates an existing concept to 4e more or less verbatim.  Again, interpretation of the rules is very subjective, but that's my take.

I think it is incumbent on someone who is consciously making a homage to make it clear in the entry that this is a homage. 

Here's an example.

In the Hero Craftsman contest, I made a D&D character based on Sarah Connor from the Terminator franchise.  It was clearly homage, but I didn't depend on judges to get the references -- even though I named the character Saralinda Hamilton Connor (the actress Linda Hamilton played Sarah Connor in the movies).  Rather, I said right at the end of entry that this character was based on the Sarah Connor from the Terminator movies.

Some of the judges commented that they thought I was ripping off Sarah Connor until they saw my note at the end and saw that it was intentional.  Had I not put in that note, I might have lost creativity points.  And I would have nobody to blame but myself.  It's my entry -- so it's my burden to make myself clear.

It's a fine line betwixt plagiarism and homage.  Don't assume your intent is going to be clear.  In all my entries in contests on this board, I usually include a section called "Designer's Notes" where I explain what I'm trying to accomplish.  If you think you wrongfully lost points on Creativity, just assume those are points you should have lost on Clarity.

In my experience lurking these contests since the earlier MDMC days entries that try to pay homage to another work put the onus on themselves to make sure their entry fits very well to both the original source and within the contest parameters to do well. 

The KISS principle is at play here.  Entries that try to use 5 or more of the optional elements, that are huge in scope, or that shoot for a unique angle often suffer when they try to shoehorn their creation into the optional elements of the contest.

My advice to you, as someone who has created (if not submitted) something for most of these competitions the past two years or more, is to be your harshest critic and really objectively decide if it's a good fit or not before you finish it.  More often than not the inspiration I get from these competitions goes in a completely different direction than the contest and I simply indulge my idea and don't enter - my preference - or I start work on a new idea.  It's no fault against you if missed the mark, learn from the experience and keep on shooting and you'll hit on a winner again. 

That's my two cents at least. 

[taking off my judge's hat]

Personally, I don't care much for "parodies" of existing concepts, characters or the like.  Most of the time, the concept doesn't really fit in with my tightly-wound perception of what a "fantasy role-playing game" should be like.  Hey, that's just me; gamer for almost 30 years.  I'm old-school and somewhat inflexible in my perceptions.

[putting on the judge's hat]

As an "impartial" judge, I have to look at stuff based on its merit and not my personal opinions about it.  As such, I won't judge a parody or copy of something harshly purely because it's a parody or a copy.  I'd judge it based on how well it strives to achieve its goal as a useful inclusion into the game.

Following Wrecan's example, if one were to attempt to build THE Terminator (T-101) in game terms, I'd look to see how well the creature fits the persona put forth in the movie.  Is it ridiculously tough, but still killable?  Are its weapons well-approximated within the framework of the game?  Does it have a plausible backstory for its existance?  Etc.

The creativity of the entry would initially take a hit for not being "original"; meaning that you're simply copying an existing idea.  However, if the idea were uniquely presented in the game format and done well, then creativity would go up.  Taking a a bullette and making it fly would get relatively low marks because you're taking something that's already in the game and just spinning it a different way.  Taking the T-101 and turning it into a flavor of golem or something would get high marks; you're copying an idea, but using it completely out of context, and that takes creativity.

thanks for the replies

It's a fine line betwixt plagiarism and homage.  Don't assume your intent is going to be clear.

well, I did make multiple references to Baldurs Gate, Minsc and Boo; but perhaps the line between homage & 'lack of idea' wasn't clear.

More often than not the inspiration I get from these competitions goes in a completely different direction than the contest

thinking back, it indeed went that way (ref to the optional elements). However; in the end, I'dd personally rather submit my works (even if it missed the mark) then just throw it away (well, put it somewhere and probably don't look at it anymore).

Taking a a bullette and making it fly would get relatively low marks because you're taking something that's already in the game and just spinning it a different way.  Taking the T-101 and turning it into a flavor of golem or something would get high marks; you're copying an idea, but using it completely out of context, and that takes creativity.

thanks for the advice.

Thanks guys and congratulations to Barmp & Veok as well

Jan 24, 2010 -- 11:27PM, Qube wrote:

More often than not the inspiration I get from these competitions goes in a completely different direction than the contest

thinking back, it indeed went that way (ref to the optional elements). However; in the end, I'dd personally rather submit my works (even if it missed the mark) then just throw it away (well, put it somewhere and probably don't look at it anymore).

It's a personal choice.  I use only about half the stuff I create for a contest, but if I'm inspired and go off on a tangent I end up using the material in my games almost all the time.  As I prefer to create things I'll use, I have no qualms about going off on that tangent and disregarding the competition.  I understand if you feel differently. 

Jan 25, 2010 -- 9:14AM, Barmp wrote:

It's a personal choice.  I use only about half the stuff I create for a contest, but if I'm inspired and go off on a tangent I end up using the material in my games almost all the time.  As I prefer to create things I'll use, I have no qualms about going off on that tangent and disregarding the competition.  I understand if you feel differently.

I took a couple of creative writing classes a while back and I learned two ridiculously useful concepts that I actually like to apply to regular life as well as writing:

1. When brainstorming a new idea, don't "censor" yourself.  If you think of it, write it down, no matter how bizarre or off-topic it might seem at the time.
2. NEVER throw anything you've written away.  You never know when you might use it later.

#1 is a great idea because if folks like DaVinci, Newton, Pasteur, etc. had pitched an idea because it was "way out there" or "completely fantastic", we might not have had many of the innovations that make life what it is today.

#2 also helps because even if you don't use something as you have it written, it might serve as the inspriation for some creativity that gets you where you want to go.

FYI:  After sending a broadcast and PMs to all 18 of the judges, I have gotten only five responses.  Three "no" and two "maybe".  I'm not sure how to go forward.  Maybe the XDMCs need a short hiatus.  If any judges haven't responded, please send me a PM and let me know your availability.

Or maybe being less restrictive about the people who can judge? - I mean, you're punishing* the winners by making them not able to enter the next competition. After all judging something is not the same as entering something.

Either way, if you need people, even though I'm not a gold medal winner, I would be happy to judge one or more competitions. With 12 entries in this competition, I don't think a hiatus is needed - contestent wise.

(*: obviously hyperbole)

You have a yes from me, Wrecan! Did you forget already?

I thought it was a tentative yes.  But we're starting to get responses, so I think we're good.

And, yeah, it does take some winners out of entry, but it makes room for more competitors to have a shot!

What a difference 24 hours makes.  We have our judges and our topic selected.  Stay tuned!

I suspect we'll be posting the next contest soon.  It should be a lot of fun!